Clarity Concepts

By Davina Stanley and Gerard Castles

Davina Stanley and Gerard Castles of Clarity College. Davina and Gerard both trained at McKinsey & Company and now serve teams from Australia’s top companies, consulting firms and universities.

Master five basic steps that help you communicate clearly in business

Our brains are drawn to CLARITY and away from clutter and confusion. If your audience cannot see through the clutter, they will either ignore you or bombard you with questions.

Once you clarify your message, you will start to have impact.

The 10 module Clarity Concepts course helps you synthesise the insights from your analysis so that your messages resonate with your audiences, whether they share your technical expertise or not. It helps you:

1. Identify your main point and communicate it more powerfully
2. Map out your supporting points clearly and logically so experts and lay people alike can follow you
3. Reduce time spent second-guessing leaders’ requirements
4. Massively cut the number of document iterations
5. Make better decisions more quickly

Feedback

Here are the answers to some questions that a recent course participant from a large Australian organisation provided:

How has the Clarity First Program benefited you in your role?
Using the framework reduces the number of iterations of communication as a result of a clearer and more concise message. I always use the CTQ framework when trying to communicate information – particularly when it’s complex.

What has changed about the way you prepare your communication since you completed the Clarity First Program?
The framework is most helpful especially in emails, given the volume of emails we send and receive daily it is important to be sharp in communication so that it doesn’t get lost along the line.

Has anyone made comments to you about differences they have seen in your communication? What have they said?
Nothing directly, but its more in what they don’t say. I don’t get many follow-ups asking for more information or for me to explain what I mean.
Who do you think would benefit from this program?
This program would be especially suitable for those wanting to reduce time spent on communicating and for those wanting to improve the results of their work through stronger communication that is to the point for specific audiences.

Course contents

The Clarity Concepts online course outlines simple steps you can take to create a compelling storyline that can underpin any kind of communication, whether in person or on paper. It includes 10 substantial modules:

1. Introducing Clarity
2. Understanding your audience
3. Creating Context
4. Articulating your Answer
5. Crafting grouping storylines
6. Building deductive storylines
7. Testing your logic
8. Preparing prose documents
9. Preparing PowerPoint packs
10. Mastering the power of patterns

Each module includes a 10–20-minute video, downloadable course notes, a deliberately challenging challenge and solutions with implementation suggestions.

Buy now for US$249